Canadian Lawyer

8 F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 9 w w w . c a n a d i a n l a w y e r m a g . c o m Q U E B E C CLIMATE CLASS ACTION LAUNCHED F ailed promises and hypocrisy. That's how Montreal lawyer André Lespérance sums up the Canadian government's behaviour when it comes to imple- menting its words and actions in the fight against global warming. It's also the crux of the arguments being made in a unique class-action lawsuit his firm has filed against Ottawa on behalf of Environnement Jeunesse, a non-profit environmental group. "Our government has signed many international agreements and made many commitments over many decades on carbon emitting and targets and agendas to cut them," says Lespérance, whose firm Trudel Johnston & Lespérance is acting for the plain- tiff pro bono. "But the government is making promises it can't or won't keep. In fact, they are going in the opposite direction — things are getting worse." Filed in late November — though not yet authorized or certi- fied — the suit asks the court to declare the federal government in violation of its obligations under both the Canadian and Quebec charters of rights and freedoms. The suit also seeks $100 in punitive damages for each of the 3.5 million Quebeckers age 35 and under, a group it claims will be most affected by climate change. If successful, any awarded monies would be put into a fund to help increase public awareness about climate change. "What is the purpose of a government if not to protect the lives and safety of its citizens?" reads the motion. "The science is undisputable: climate change is real and represents a potentially irreversible hazard. It poses major risks to life, security and inviol- ability of the person, including the environment and the preserva- tion of biodiversity, especially for younger generations." The suit goes on to allege that by ratifying several international agreements since 1992, Canada has long accepted the scientific and political consensus that global warming is attributable to human activity and that "action is urgently needed to prevent global warm- ing from having irreversible and dangerous effects." It also argues that the federal government's "gross negligence" in failing to implement key agreed-to measures on cutting greenhouse gas emissions infringes on ss. 7 and 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, ss. 1 and 10 of the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms and runs afoul of Quebec civil law. Though like climate change-related court actions in several other countries — notably Holland, where a landmark ruling ordering the Dutch government to cut carbon emissions was upheld in October, and in the United States, where 21 young people have filed a lawsuit against the federal government, claiming its failure to act on climate change is a violation of their constitu- tional rights — the Quebec class action is believed to be a world first in the field. "There are maybe 1,000 legal actions in a dozen countries that involve climate change to some degree," says Montreal lawyer Karine Péloffy, an Oxford-educated expert on international climate change law and the former director general of the Quebec Environ- mental Law Centre. According to Péloffy, who presciently predicted that climate change litigation would mushroom in a 2012 article in the McGill Journal of Sustainable Development Law, the majority of those cases involve governments or citizens suing corporations, a minority — "maybe 40 per cent" — are corporations trying to overturn legis- lation to cut emissions and fight climate change. "This is the first time that a class action has been used and the first time that punitive damages are being sought," says Péloffy. "It really marks a widening of the legal front in the fight against global warming." R E G I O N A L W R A P "This is the first time that a class action has been used and the first time that punitive damages are being sought. It really marks a widening of the legal front in the fight against global warming." Karine Péloffy Right-sized Thinking® • 1-800-323-3781 • pallettvalo.com Your Authority For: Business Law • Commercial Litigation • Commercial Real Estate Construction • Insolvency & Corporate Restructuring Employment & Labour • Wills, Estates & Trusts One Size Does Not Fit All Some legal matters require bigger solutions than others. At Pallett Valo LLP we provide pragmatic, forward-thinking legal counsel that fits each client's specific business challenge without compromising service or quality. Try on our Right-sized Thinking® and we'll help you hit the ground running. ntitled-3 1 2019-01-17 10:59 AM

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